BHUBANESWAR: A day after the appointment of Supreme Court judge Justice Bela M Trivedi as chairperson of the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal, the Opposition BJD took on the state and central governments dubbing it another attempt to further delay justice for Odisha.
Senior BJD leader and MLA Prasanna Acharya on Saturday said the people of the state have to wait longer to get justice as the new chairman will revisit the case because of the complexities involved.
“Mahanadi river has assumed the appearance of a desert after Chhattisgarh constructed multiple dams and barrages in the upper stream. Odisha is going to face serious consequences of climate change and its agriculture-based economy will be devastated if Chhattisgarh is allowed to take total control of Mahanadi water,” Acharya warned.
He said the low water inflow into Hirakud dam during non-monsoon period has severely impacted the state and the situation will worsen in the coming days. The adverse impact will be on agriculture, ground water recharge, forest and the life and livelihood of people living on both sides of the river.
“Our government under the leadership of then chief minister Naveen Patnaik tried its best to bring an early resolution to the dispute. Several rounds of discussions at official level between the two states were possible because of our sincere efforts but nothing came of it due to non-cooperation of Chhattisgarh. Then we approached the central government for mediation but did not get any support,” Acharya said.
The former minister said that the people of the state are now quite hopeful of an early solution to the water dispute as the BJP is in power in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and the Centre. “The triple-engine government must act in triple speed to give justice to the people of Odisha,” he said.
Responding to Acharya, Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said the water sharing issue has remained unresolved as the Naveen Patnaik government wanted to do politics by misleading the people.
“There was a stable government in the state and the Centre as well. The situation was conducive for resolution through negotiations. Instead, the BJD government took the matter to the Supreme Court for its own political gain,” Harichandan said.